


the sharp knife of a short life

by orphan_account



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Missing Scene, Spoilers, gratuitous use of white boxes probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:49:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It’s hard to ⬜⬜⬜⬜ someone. What comes next is even harder.[ Contains heavy spoilers. A series of vignettes filling in some of the gaps after a certain event in canon, some more canon-compliant than others. ]
Kudos: 32





	the sharp knife of a short life

Mari’s body feels far too heavy.

The two of them keep silent as Sunny hauls Mari’s body through the back garden, save for Basil’s wide-eyed muttering through pale lips. The recital is tonight, and Sunny’s parents will come home to pick up their children and drive them to the concert hall. Mom bought Dad a little flower to pin on his suit jacket, one that Mari teased him endlessly about. Dad bought new batteries for the video camera, just in case the old ones die in the middle of their duet.

That’s why Sunny has to do what Basil says. They have to be done before they get home, so Sunny can wake up. Then everything can go back to normal, and his violin won’t be broken and Mari’s neck won’t be broken and Mom and Dad’s hearts won’t be broken and they can go to the recital and their duet will be perfect.

Mari was so light when he carried her up and down those stairs—so now why is her body so _heavy?_

Sunny remembers reading something about dreams once, and why it can be so hard to run, or swim, or even punch in them. Your mind wants to protect your body from moving around in your sleep like you move in your dream, so it paralyses your muscles to keep you from harm. That feedback in your brain creates the effect of moving in slow motion in your dream, as if you’re running through quicksand. 

That must be why her body is so heavy now. It’s hard to lift her, because he’s dreaming.

Basil is saying something now, words tumbling from his lips like a waterfall, but Sunny can’t understand any of it. He lays Mari down on the grass where they used to play together with Mewo and turns his gaze to the sky, watching how the light shines on her through the leaves. It frames her head in a beautiful halo; her skin gleams whiter, and the ugly bruise on her neck blooms even deeper. He swallows the noise that threatens to escape him and focuses on the sky instead. It’s a pleasantly blank white, and he keeps his gaze fixed on it in the hopes it might swallow him whole. 

Next to him, something picks up Mari’s body. He doesn’t look, but it doesn’t matter. He can stop looking, but he can’t stop listening. 

First, there’s a soft grunt of exertion, a frustrated hiss of air through clenched teeth. A branch creaks. Sunny tells himself it’s just the wind.

Next comes a muffled yelp of surprise, and the sound of something hitting the grass with a dull thud. 

Finally, he hears the sound of a rope being pulled, slithering against the rough bark of Mewo’s favourite tree. Something sways back and forth in the breeze, creaking every time. 

Something enters his field of vision, blocking out the sunlight. A hand, clammy and with blistered palms. For one perfect second he thinks it’s Mari coming to take him with her, but it’s not Mari’s voice he hears next. “Sunny,” Basil says, just barely louder than a whisper. “Let’s go back inside.” Something wet, maybe a drop of rain, falls onto Sunny’s forehead. 

He takes Basil’s hand and follows him to the sliding door. When he looks back at Mari for the last time, the dream ends.

**Author's Note:**

> There's actually a perfectly good text description of the hanging in the game itself if you look up the datamined descriptions for the dark photo album, but it felt awkward to open the fic with what I planned for the second chapter so I just ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I'll probably clean this up and change some details later if I ever do a second playthrough, but for now if I get something about canon reeeally wrong....well. Handwave it as an AU element lmao
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
